On Tuesday we had the pleasure of eating some good food and then slipping into a back room to hear some writers read some of their work. We went because our friend Julie was participating and were happy we did because the whole evening was fun.
Let’s start with the food! The Piston, located at 937 Bloor Street West (just west of the Ossington Station, on the south side) served it up very nicely.
My favourite kind of restaurant seating is a booth, and I have been known to return to a certain spot with so-so but edible food, based on this style of seating (no names required and the place is now closed, but they did have awesome booths). I’m sure this stems back to back-to-school shopping trips with my mother and siblings when I was a kid, which included lunch at a very old diner with booths, that used to be on Yonge Street near Dundas. Having grown up in the suburbs of the big city, these early trips downtown were a highlight, during which I decided that, without doubt, Toronto was going to be the place to live when I grew up. So booths in restaurants are all wrapped up in that and you might say a big part of the reason I live here now. (Haha, I know … too much read into the type of seating in a restaurant, right?)
Anyway, upon entering The Piston I was delighted to find a nice row of cozy booths with one free and just waiting for us. I made the decision to like the place while taking off my warm winter outerwear and slipping into it. Then this decision was further confirmed by the food we were served.
Sorry these pictures are so dark but the dim lighting contributed to the ambiance.
They were offering a 1/2 price special on a ‘Crispy Fish Sandwich’, further described in the menu as Mexi-crusted Tilapia with tomato, greens. It sounded so good that I would have selected that with or without the special price. Nick went with a burger from the specials board, that came with some spicy Havarti cheese. On the side, I chose the chips and homemade salsa and Nick the green salad. To drink we had our beer of choice, some nice fresh Steam Whistle that was on tap.
The food was all very tasty and the service friendly, and we ended up being very happy that we had made the decision to come out early and get some dinner at The Piston before Julie’s reading.
I used to live right down the street of this venue and am envious of the current residents in the neighbourhood having this place to go. They have a different entree on for 1/2 price every week, so it’s a place I could easily see myself popping into regularly if I still lived nearby.
An added bonus is that there is more to The Piston, in that the back room is used for live music, dj nights and events such as The Taddle Creek Literary Magazine Party for Issue 31, that we were there to attend.
Julie, who you’ve met before (here and here for example), is a published poet who had some of her work included in the magazine and was invited to read at their winter launch. The audience was treated to three new poems, and it was a thrill to hear our friend reading them to us herself.
(Not only is Julie a talented writer, she is also an excellent knitter, blogging on the subject at Knitted Bliss.)
Also sharing their work was Becky Blake, who read us one of her short stories …
and Robin Richardson who also read some of her poems.
The MC for the night was magazine founder, Conan Tobias. You can read more about Taddle Creek and subscribe at their site here.
Each of the readings were very entertaining and left me wanting more. All in all, it was a really good night and we were happy to have ventured out for it.
Thanks for taking a look,
xo loulou
